#Uzuki Katakura

[worstcrystalbearer]

Day 16 - "Third-rate"

"That's enough, string-bean. Hop on down- Oh."

Jana let go of the bar she was using to do chin-ups and stepped over to where Uzuki was stuck... Hanging by her chin. Grabbing her legs, lifting her up a bit, then letting her down, Jana could only sigh as the teenage girl rubbed her neck. "I guess this was still too much? Then we can try something easier-"

It would be a lie to say Jana was pained upon seeing Uzuki's expression, but she did pity the girl. Whatever her strengths would be, physical power was clearly not one of them. And the more they tried these kinds of exercises, the more it seemed that Uzuki would accept it as fact. But for now, there was still a hint of defiance in her eyes... A bit of fire that actually did pain Jana to have to put out. She'd heard a little about katana masters that cut with speed instead of power, but how could she teach such a thing? The best she could do was keep Uzuki in good condition.

"Five minute break. Then we'll figure something else out to try."

[worstcrystalbearer]

Day 12 - "Quarry"

"That's right, keep going. You're almost in position, just get to that next shrub." The linkpearl didn't sit well between her horn and head, but Uzuki managed a little "okay" as she kept running through the Thanalan desert. Stopping slowly, gently, without skidding, she scooted behind the scrub on the ground and made her body as small as she could.

Without further direction coming to her over linkpearl, all she could do was wait. But she wasn't waiting for long when a sudden burst of movement caught her eye - A flash of fur and claws, heading right for the dried-out bush she was waiting behind. She was tempted to reach for her sheathed sword, but suppressed the instinct that came to those with weapons and suddenly stood up instead-

"Ooof!" The marmot crashed right into her gut and sent her sprawling, but Uzuki forced herself to wrap her arms around it and hold on tight as she fell backwards. Rolling in the dirt, leather mitts taking the brunt of the furious creature's clawing and biting, she didn't have to wait long for the voice over the linkpearl (also somewhere in the dirt) to show themselves. A young highlander man in the armor of a Gladiator came jogging over, holding a small wooden cage. "In here, quick!"

With a concrete goal in mind, Uzuki could finally push herself onto her feet and use the burst of energy to shove the escaped pet into the guild-provided cage, and the other young adventurer slammed it shut with a shout of "Hells yeah!"

-

"I can't believe we're losing half the reward over a ribbon."

Considerably less joyous now, the two adventurers, plus a third Miqo'te girl with a bow who had helped them track the runaway rodent, grimaced as they counted out their reward gil in Uld'ah's Quicksand. "These rich gits, always looking to scrape a little off the top..."

While she shared her teammates' frustrations, Uzuki had at least been warned by Jana to expect this kind of legal foul play. Wealthy clientele who submitted leves to the Adventurers' Guild had ways of making sure they got their money's worth while also finding ways to send that gil back into their own pockets. Skilled hunters themselves, in a different sense... And with jobs this lacking in danger, there was no end to the rank and file adventurers they could dupe.

[worstcrystalbearer]

Day 11 - "Surrogate"

"Right... So stamping here doesn't make me her mother, correct?"

Jana had been very sure when she ordered the paperwork that would make Uzuki her ward that she wasn't going to accidentally adopt the girl, but she couldn't help being paranoid. Their verbal agreement was going to be a little more official now and Jana would technically be in charge of what was left of the Katakura clan's wealth until Uzuki could come of age. In practice, Jana planned to let her do as she wished with both the money and material goods... But legal protection was always important, especially in Ul'dah.

"That's right, madam," replied the mustachioed Lalafell behind the counter. "You will be her guardian and guarantor for the next few years, but nothing more. Though if you wish to adopt..." The short man cut himself off as Jana shook her head.

"This is enough for both of us. She just needs a little protection while she gets back onto her own two feet." The look her reply earned her seemed to say, "Why simply 'protect' anyone? This is Ul'dah," but if the clerk was thinking about it, he didn't voice it aloud. Perhaps because his tact (or anyone's, really) could totally eclipse Jana's, he instead nodded and slid the forms across the counter.

It was a question worth considering though, and Jana had spent a good, long time doing so, but even she didn't have a singular answer. Maybe this was just a simple act of pity, maybe she just needed to feel better about herself after taking so many lives (not that she would stop doing so). But deep in her subconscious, a feeling that she would never be able to verbalize had already taken hold: She simply couldn't bear to see someone with potential have it snatched away, especially by the kinds of vultures that had circled the girl on that dock in Vesper Bay.

A few signatures and stamps later, and the paperwork was finalized, and the clerk collected them up to file away. "Very good. By the authority granted to me by the City-State of Ul'dah, Jana Ridah is now the legal guardian of Uzuki Katakura." With a small bow, he then turned and left, leaving Jana alone with nothing but her thoughts... The first of which was why she had been allowed to do all this without the teen girl present.

[worstcrystalbearer]

Day 6 - "Halcyon"

Tiny Katakura no Uzuki, current heiress to the Katakura clan (pending the birth of a male heir) was taught her letters and numbers. Her family, while noble, wasn't very large or wealthy, so they had hired her a fairly ordinary tutor to teach her the basics of as many things possible. Reading and writing were a given, and so was basic math, all of which the child took to like a fish to water.

Her samurai family couldn't be more proud. A good samurai must be capable in all things, from art to war, after all. If she could prove herself a capable administrator, then maybe even the Taiko in Kugane would have a post for her that would let them live there permanently instead of chasing business interests in Doma, now part of the Garlean empire.

Still, this still left out the bits about "war". And it had gotten harder to find good kenjutsu teachers after so many capable swordsmen were drafted into the Garlean army. The best her father could do for her was teach her how to hold a sword correctly and give it some practice swings, though maybe that was enough for a child. Academics and mental discipline would end up being the bulk of what she was taught. For a long time afterwards, these would remain Uzuki's specialties, even when she matured into an adult...

[worstcrystalbearer]

Day 5 - "Stamp"

"-And your personal seal goes here."

While she wasn't quite an adult yet, Katakura no Uzuki had just finished filing her first set of paperwork to establish Katakura Adventuring Financial Services in Ul'dah (with the help of her foster-guardian, veteran adventurer Jana Ridah). It had been a long road, but all things considered, it hadn't been very difficult: After using Jana's connections to sell off the unclaimed cargo she'd come with from Doma at reasonable prices, those same merchants had helped her get the right business paperwork and fill in what she could on her own. Jana did have to sign some in her capacity of "guardian" as well, but for better or worse, Ul'dah's age of majority for a business holder was just low enough for her to apply. After all, how else were wealthy business owners going to leave things in the names of their underaged children in order to commit fraud?

It was only an hour later that Uzuki was accepting her first client and her first employee at the same time, Jana herself. With her help, word of Uzuki's new business would hopefully spread far and wide amongst the adventuring community. But there was one more thing the Auri teen had to do.

One didn't have to be old enough to drink to sign up at the Adventurers' Guild. In exchange for all her help, Jana had demanded Uzuki become an adventurer like herself, to better know the lives her clients were leading, their needs, and their wants. Which meant another round of paperwork... Uzuki already had her personal seal in hand.

[worstcrystalbearer]

Day 4 - "Reticent"

Another wave of Doman refugees had just arrived at Vesper Bay. Many were in the process of re-uniting with their families that had come in earlier waves, or giving messengers some bad news to send along to Mor Dhona. But one in particular was struggling with her cargo instead. Katakura no Uzuki, recently become the last of her line, already knew there would be no one waiting for her in Eorzea, and that she would be managing what her parents had left her on her own.

Specifically, she had several crates of various sizes to handle, unclaimed belongings that had been in the warehouse her family managed on Doma's riverbanks. Promise of payment from their coffers had seen them loaded onto the galley of refugees (once the ship's captain was certain there was no one left to evacuate, of course), and the same payment saw the crates unloaded. But now that the last of her koban on hand had been given out, the crates sat on the stone dockside, gathered into a large group, and the twiggy Auri girl could no more hope to manage them alone than she could hope to bring her parents back from the dead.

As the hustle and bustle died down, Domans making their way to either Ul'dah or Revenant's Toll with their meagre belongings, the ostentatious pile of cargo was beginning to draw more and more attention. Twice the girl had to chase away too-obvious pickpockets, four times she'd had to vehemently deny to merchants that they were goods for sale, and once she'd even had to threaten to draw her family sword against a more brazen thug (though she'd thankfully not had to act on it). But now that the sun was setting and no solution was presenting itself, Uzuki was beginning to have second thoughts. No one seemed willing to store the cargo at a local warehouse without up-front payment, especially from a refugee, nor could she hire a horse-bird cart without Eorzean gil to pay. Even if the prices they offered her were tantamount to robbery, maybe she had no choice but to sell the unclaimed property to Thanalan's least scrupulous merchants after all...

As the sun dipped under the horizon and the shadows of the dockyard grew long, Uzuki could already see more eyes on her. Greedy, hungry, maybe even lustful eyes, belonging to men and women whose backgrounds she couldn't even begin to guess- Until her gaze caught one woman's eyes, a Miqo'te dressed in the loose armor of an adventurer who'd just passed her over without a second thought. Finally, someone who thought nothing of her... Which was why Uzuki chose to approach her, changing both of their lives forever.

[worstcrystalbearer]

Day 1 - "Steer"

Even if their age difference wasn't enough for Jana Ridah to consider herself the girl's "mother," she knew that if she was to impress upon her new ward, Katakura no Uzuki, that she could be relied upon, she would need to at least play the part a little bit. The veteran adventurer only knew a handful of retired adventurers who were parents, and she looked down on pretty much all of them with disdain, so she turned to another adventurer standby to learn how she should go about it. After a round of interrogating locals, her gloomy countenance at odds with the kind of information she was seeking, she arrived at what many would consider a perfectly normal answer: A fishing trip.

-

Jana leaned against the side of the small fishing boat, some distance from the shore of Crescent Cove. The dark-skinned Miqo'te Keeper looked at her charge with a grimace on her face, purple eyes behind a pair of spectacles squinting in displeasure. In front of her was her ward, a small and twiggy Auri teen girl with pale skin and a bob of dark red hair. Uzuki fumbled with the rope in her inexperienced hands, struggling to keep a grip on it as the biting wind brought tears to her blue eyes, a pair of small round spectacles woefully insufficient to serve as protection.

In truth, Jana already knew that the weather would be rough today. She'd chosen to set sail on this day on purpose, hoping she could toughen up the string bean of a girl. Hardship was supposed to bring people together, as she'd experienced facing death in dungeons and battlefields alongside her comrades. She knew better than to send the teen girl to her certain doom, but figured this might serve as enough of a trial for them to grow closer together.

And for now, that meant physically closing the distance. Jana approached Uzuki from behind and brought her hands over the smaller girl's, quietly guiding her in the process of securing the ship's rigging to endure the sudden squall. Her voice, low in both tone and volume, could only be heard by Uzuki due to the semi-unintended embrace they found themselves in, but it was somehow enough to put the younger girl at ease. As Jana felt Uzuki relax, she backed away, letting the girl finish the job as she moved to secure another rope.

-

"That was..." The girl found herself at a loss for words. She'd bravely faced her new guardian down, demanding respect as the daughter of a samurai family before Doma's doomed rebellion. But the training afforded to a pre-teen by a minor house was perhaps not enough to prepare her for the standards of an insane Eorzean adventurer. Eventually, she settled on "...Intense."

"You really think so?" came Jana's reply. She pulled a pair of stools onto the side of the ship, gesturing for Uzuki to take a seat. As the teen girl sat to catch her breath and the other woman fiddled in the ship's storage bin, she could feel the summer squall begin to subside, the rain easing into a shower and the wind slowing down. Jana finally brought out a bucket of live bait and a pair of simple fishing rods, plopping the bait between the stools before taking a seat and offering Uzuki a rod. "We're only twenty yalms away from shore, at most. Let me tell you about the time I fought a sea serpent, out on the open ocean. A false god called Leviathan..."

[worstcrystalbearer]

Day 20 - "Duel"

"A job? In Ishgard?"

Khena looked at the letter in misbelief. MogMail from her sister had almost entirely ceased in the decade-ish since their mother had died, and here was a letter saying she'd both taken in a child and was offering a job working under her... Under the child! Even if she didn't want for work in Gridania and didn't feel like she owed Jana anything, her curiosity won out in the end. She would need to pack something warm...

-

It was a strange situation to be sure. Jana's ward had teamed up with an Ishgardian politician to rent an apartment building and establish a new branch office for her financial business on the ground floor. Meeting Uzuki for the first time, Khena couldn't help but be taken in by her bright, blue eyes... Eyes that reminded her of herself. Before she could tease Jana about them, the young lady slid a sheet of paper to her.

"A contract, as well as what the work entails. Your sister... My guardian, has been doing it in Ul'dah for some time and assured me you would be alright at it?"

"'Alright'?" Khena seemed a little taken aback.

"Yeah, 'alright'." If Jana hadn't meant it as a stealth-diss before, she meant it as one now.

Even someone as conflict-averse as Khena couldn't help but puff out her chest at the blatant provocation by her only enemy in the world. Without even reading the contract, she moved for the quill Uzuki had offered her.

[worstcrystalbearer]

Day 15 - "Teach"

"Alright kiddo, let's see how you punch." So far, Jana's attempts to teach her ward Uzuki to fight had met with failure. The stringy auri teen had talked a big game about being from a warrior family, but besides the fancy sword she wore at her waist, the girl didn't know how to fight, how to hunt, or how to kill. Or how to throw a punch, apparently. The blow landed on Jana's palm as intended, but Uzuki's stance, distribution of weight, the way she moved her body to add force to the blow... All wrong, as the veteran adventurer was quick to point out.

Her ward, to her credit, seemed to be taking the harsh tutelage well. As much as Jana was disparaging her, she didn't seem to be lashing out emotionally; her crappy punches were at least consistently crappy and not worsening as one might expect from a more petulant student. "Alright, that's enough. Before you get too tired, why don't you give your arms a break?" "But I can keep going-" "It's not about that, I want to see what else that family you're so proud of put you through. Let me see how you multiply your numbers."

[worstcrystalbearer]

Day 8 - "Stone"

Newbie adventurer Katakura no Uzuki had taken on what she thought was a reasonable task: Searching an underground mine for survivors of a cave-in and getting out. There had been a few small monsters in the frontal areas of the cave, but nothing she couldn't deal with on her own. Even if she lacked in proper kenjutsu teaching, her Eorzean guardian had still ensured she remain in peak physical condition.

She had a hand-drawn map of the mine, given over to the Adventurers' Guild by an escaped miner, with the caveat that some tunnels may have caved in after their escape by further explosions or monster activity. But so far, all had gone smoothly, and Uzuki had made her way quite deep into the underground maze. But it didn't last for long: A major junction between levels of the mine had collapsed, and the teen adventurer had finally stumbled upon it.

Consulting her map for a way around, Uzuki could already tell the detour would be quite the hike. But as she turned to go, a sudden tremor shook the tunnel, forcing her to lean against a wall. She hadn't heard an explosion, nor was Thanalan known for earthquakes, so what could it be-

Some of the collapsed stones blocking her path suddenly burst out, and water began to rush forth, as if from a dam. An underground river! If the entire tunnel ahead of her was flooded, there was little chance of survivors waiting on the other side... Nor was there much chance of her safely making it over to check. But now she was on a time limit - Escaping the maze of mine shafts before the floodwaters could rise up to meet her. Thankfully, this wouldn't be such a difficult task for the lithe adventurer, and she'd live to report back to the Guild if she could just find her footing-

Another strong, sudden shake. More stones burst out of the collapsed wall, and a sudden roar. Whatever had caused the initial cave-in and flood, it seemed that monsters had somehow joined the fray. Without waiting for the shaking to completely subside, Uzuki began to run.

"Adventurer found no evidence of survivors. Suspected cause of tunnel collapse is underground aquifer breached by miners. Possible presence of hecatoncheires makes further exploration unlikely."